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ORIGINAL: Telemecus

ORIGINAL: tyronec
Beyond my experience level, do you have any idea what that choke point is ?
The times I've played Soviets there always seemed to be stacks of empty shells but I may have been doing silly things like building SU's too early.

HardLuckYetAgain has posted about it in various AARs recently, so can be read about there. I hope HardLuckYetAgain will read this and post with a more exact guide to numbers as they are very experienced with the Soviets (whatever they say!)

Again, I'm not very good at the Soviet side. I'm still a noob over here bumbling around and sooner or later I'm going to bump into something and break it. (I do have another crazy idea I want to try one day too btw ) But with all the surrounded units on turn 1 and a reborn rate of 7 to 15 turns for those units to come back. Then on top of that when they do come back they have no squad experience & have to rail from china to the front lines. So IMHO the Soviets have a severe shortage of units and if you can capitalize on further reducing that number the soviet defense will crumble. There is a timeline and the amount of units you need, I'm just not going to go in the requirements at the moment. BTW Pelton had some really good write ups on what he did & I recommend reading those. I hope those writings are still around.

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

ORIGINAL: tyronec
Beyond my experience level, do you have any idea what that choke point is ?
The times I've played Soviets there always seemed to be stacks of empty shells but I may have been doing silly things like building SU's too early.

HardLuckYetAgain has posted about it in various AARs recently, so can be read about there. I hope HardLuckYetAgain will read this and post with a more exact guide to numbers as they are very experienced with the Soviets (whatever they say!)

Again, I'm not very good at the Soviet side. I'm still a noob over here bumbling around and sooner or later I'm going to bump into something and break it. (I do have another crazy idea I want to try one day too btw ) But with all the surrounded units on turn 1 and a reborn rate of 7 to 15 turns for those units to come back. Then on top of that when they do come back they have no squad experience & have to rail from china to the front lines. So IMHO the Soviets have a severe shortage of units and if you can capitalize on further reducing that number the soviet defense will crumble. There is a timeline and the amount of units you need, I'm just not going to go in the requirements at the moment. BTW Pelton had some really good write ups on what he did & I recommend reading those. I hope those writings are still around.

Does not destroying Russian units vs your thoughts on letting them starve or surrender? Does a bitter end campaign change the nexus?

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: Telemecus




HardLuckYetAgain has posted about it in various AARs recently, so can be read about there. I hope HardLuckYetAgain will read this and post with a more exact guide to numbers as they are very experienced with the Soviets (whatever they say!)

Again, I'm not very good at the Soviet side. I'm still a noob over here bumbling around and sooner or later I'm going to bump into something and break it. (I do have another crazy idea I want to try one day too btw ) But with all the surrounded units on turn 1 and a reborn rate of 7 to 15 turns for those units to come back. Then on top of that when they do come back they have no squad experience & have to rail from china to the front lines. So IMHO the Soviets have a severe shortage of units and if you can capitalize on further reducing that number the soviet defense will crumble. There is a timeline and the amount of units you need, I'm just not going to go in the requirements at the moment. BTW Pelton had some really good write ups on what he did & I recommend reading those. I hope those writings are still around.

Does not destroying Russian units vs your thoughts on letting them starve or surrender? Does a bitter end campaign change the nexus?

Having the units starve (rot) in the Lvov pocket is a good tactic imho but some will find it gamey. Use a few broken down divisions along with Romanians and you can have them auto surrender turn 7+ if they aren't getting air supplied. In essence you wont see those units reborn until turn 14-22 if they all auto surrendered on turn 7 which they wont.

Bitter end changes where you defend as the Soviets. IMHO Bitter End dictates a "strong" Leningrad/Moscow Defense. Other victory conditions dictate a different strategic outlook. Just my 2 cents

This is the map after my recon for T3.

Pandaemonium continues his retreat.
He has bombed some airbases and armoured units, I have lost 26 aircraft for 165 which is acceptable. I cannot provide air cover to my advanced units but can at least start to give the corps AA.
In the North can see no sign of defences in front of Leningrad. He has cut off two of my motorised divisions but not attacked them. Am OK with this, was not unexpected. There may be the opportunity to pocket some units in this area, including a few airborne brigades. My initial idea is to send one Pz corps NE to flip more hexes for the infantry and another SE to close one side of the pocket.
Centre. The main effort for PG3 will be to close the other side of the pocket. He has some infantry stacking up behind this area and may be able to counterattack next turn but that entails risks for him too.
XXXXVII Pz corps can just flip more terrain for the infantry. The priority in this area to get the infantry forwards and will forgo any opportunity there might be to trap a unit or two.
South. He has broken the small pocket just South of Brest Litovsk, am not sure if he has got any units out or quite how it happened - but a mistake by me to let it happen. Will close that again without doing any attacks. PG2 will advance to the Dnepr and occupy my side of the river. I may reorganise them ready for HQBuildups next turn. 6th Armp will advance at full speed ready to assault on T5. 17th Army will leave the mountain troops to mop up the L'Vov pocket and send anything it can spare East.
Romanian Front. Odessa is not strongly garrisoned so will assault with all I can muster. Will send one unit to take Ochakov port, may be able to trap something in this area but probably not much.

South

Air war.
I move some empty airfields up to the front line, transfer fighters to them and commence airfield bombing: 835 for 56 which is excellent. Managed to take out one recon airbase that was too far behind his lines for fighter cover which was fun. Only 7 IL4's - the fighters definitely die more easily under bombing. Having been careful not to run my fighters out of fuel they get pulled back and empty airbases pushed forwards again. I expect he will retaliate so organise the airbases to have as much AA cover as possible. I won't do any ground bombing this turn as he has too much fighter cover and I want to rest my own fighters. However he can't take this for long and will either have to retreat his fighters or I will wipe them out.
Losses were up to 1001 for 67 by the end of the turn with interceptions.

AGN. PG4 takes Pskov and does some right hook, however Soviet are well placed and I can do no more than relieve the motorised division.

AGC. PG3 pushes up to close the pocket but there are more defenders than showed up under recon and I cannot close the pocket. There are 5 Soviets with restricted movement and I may be able to catch them next turn. Am not too happy with my move and unsure if Pandaemonium will be able to exploit it in some way.
XXXXVII Pz corps move up to the landbridge.

AGS. My mountaineers and Romanians continue to grind down the L'Vov pocket; STAVKA have launched an invasion of Hungary without declaring war, I trust Admiral Horthy will mobilise the full Hungarian armed force and put them at our disposal.
The divisions south of Brest Litovsk get sealed off again.
PG2 reaches the Dnepr and pushes the Ruskies out of the two rough hexes our side of the river.
PG1 assaults Odessa, it takes several attacks, with pioneers, to push out the defenders, have caught a few divisions here. One corps pushes up towards Chergassy, they have full fuel having just derailed.
I move all my AGS air assets to near Odessa so the bombers and transports are well protected.



All my rail capacity was take up by PG1 so have around 7 divisions marching from Berlin, should be able to rail a few next turn.

Administration.
Lock all Armies. Set AG's to '0'.
I upgraded a few '5' corps leaders to '7's'. Still undecided as to were to use the top guys.
No HQBuildups yet, have some spare AP's for next turn.

Conclusion.
Am still not sure where I am going to run into a strong defence. There are several strategic decisions to make:
How much does AGN need to take Leningrad ?
Where should 2nd Army be allocated ?
Should all of PG1 stay South or part be sent north for the battle for Moscow ?
Where do I need my 'super' corps ?

Oops - some of you may have noticed I uploaded the wrong turn first time...

ORIGINAL: tyronec
Where should 2nd Army be allocated ?

I would say do not walk them directly East as many do. Use rail to take them to be the northern army of army group centre - and occupy some of that gap usually left between AGC and AGN. Typically 2nd army is in action turns earlier. But depends of course on your rail cap not being prioritised for elsewhere etc.

Yes, every other game I've played they have railed up to help the drive on Leningrad, but may not be needed there this time. Am short of rail capacity as PG1 absorbed it all T2/T3 so am behind getting some reinforcements up, but then the rail heads are a little further on so that helps.

T4 as the move comes back from Pandaemonium.

No ground attacks.
Serious bombing campaign, I have lost 59 (mostly fighters) for 586 and has inflicted 580 ground casualties. Neither side can sustain this rate of losses. Fatigue level of my fighters is also on the rise while STAVA will be redeploying more fresh fighters from the reserve. It I hadn't pulled back from the front line things would have been a lot worse.

As expected there are 5 Soviet units held back by the unclosed pocket between AGN and AGC, he has isolated one motorised division again so they will need to rest and refuel.
There are 3 or 4 units caught in the Odessa pocket.

Plan for the turn:

AGN. Just a scattering of units still blocking the route to Leningrad. I will push 18th Army towards Leningrad, 16th Army will close the pocket and push on south of lake Ilmen. PG4 will extract itself and head North, maybe clearing some hexes to help the advance next turn.




AGC. Secure the pocket with infantry. It doesn't look like the landbridge is strongly garrisoned so will see if I can push through. The priority is to clear the way for maximum infantry advance next turn. Just north of the Pripyat marshes I want to advance as far as possible and will probably aim to have two infantry corps in this area. The idea is to exert pressure on the Dnepr crossing around Rogashev so he must either defend it strongly or retreat

AGS. At Kiev 6th Army will move up ready to assault the Dnepr next turn. PG2 will pull one hex to rest.
17th Army have two corps clearing up L'Vov, I would like them to get to the railway in Romania next turn ready to rail forwards along the Odessa line. The third corps will fill in the gap south of 6th Army as they advance (assuming thay can get across the river).

The air war.
I go all out at AGC where he is closest and transfer the whole of the Luftwaffe there. Airfield bombing achieves 722 for 103 and most of my losses are bombers which are more affordable. Will pull everything back again for protection. My airforce with AGS is out of fighter range so the allies can look after air cover. Get another 70 bombers during ground combat.

AGN. Much as planned and advance 4 hexes. The Finns begin to move.

AGC. Seal off the 5 units as expected. I think the three hexes marked will flip before his turn, but if not he can reopen the pocket. Vitebsk is not well defended so take it from the south. Do an HQBuildup on the marked Pz. Corps, just might be useful next turn.

AGS. We mass at the river. His stack on the corner has increased from a defence of 12 to 34 (3 armoured divisions, Fort 1.32). PG2 do one HQBuildup. PG1 make a threat towards Chergassy and do one attack across the river, just to stretch his defensive line.
L'Vov pocket is almost clear, two mountain divisions invading our allies. The Hungarian border patrol watch as they march past. Hope they don't expect the Germans to repair their railway.
Odessa area is cleared out. Nikolaev taken and PG1 storms the Dnepr around Kherson; making a loose pocket with LAH Motorised which are topped up with fuel by air. I don't think he has anything to counter attack them with so should this force him to abandon the river line. Pandaemonium's defensive positioning is very good, had the possibility of a proper pocket here but then another division turned up in the swamp to stop me.

Admin.
OKH is locked.
A couple of corps leaders are upgraded.
Some pioneers are moved to OKH.
Two He111's are downgraded to Ju86's. There are not enough He's to fill the airgroups.

ORIGINAL: tyronec

T4 as the move comes back from Pandaemonium.

No ground attacks.
Serious bombing campaign, I have lost 59 (mostly fighters) for 586 and has inflicted 580 ground casualties.

Is this from Soviet bombing of Axis airfields? If you lose 59 fighters while bombing Soviet airfields gaining experience/ victories you can call it an investment. Losing them on the ground is quite a bit worse.